I wrote this is April (2003) before Order of the Phoenix came out. It is the forerunner to Harry Potter: International Megastar, my first Fanfiction.net publication. Although I feel it is actually written better than the final story, I changed my mind about several things after reading OotP and totally rewrote it, without consulting my original. It's not perfect, there are mistakes (both in spelling and otherwise) and it's not finished. Read and compare with the final draft (last chapter), and tell me what you think.

Harry Potter – Grown Up

(By Arrows' Biggest Fan)

Harry Potter was nothing like a normal twenty-two year old man. Not only did he have a scar splashed across his forehead, his picture and name were everywhere. The photo of an actor playing his twelve-year-old self went by on the back of a bus.

Harry was walking down Charing Cross Road in London to the Leaky Cauldron, the pub that was the entrance to Diagon Alley. He had just left the offices of the Ministry of Magic, where he had been trying to explain that it was a total accident that a certain Mr. N. Longbottom had blown up a shopful of cauldrons. He was just rather accident prone, that's all, was what he had tried to tell them. He had lost hope when the accused transplanted the wig of the reporter from the Daily Prophet onto the Minister for Magic's head.

Harry needed to go into Diagon Alley to buy a new copy of Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. It was totally unreadable as Ron Weasley, his best friend, had written CHUDLEY CANNONS in large letters all over it on their last day at Hogwarts. He was now Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Flying teacher and Quidditch referee at Hogwarts, and still needed his old school book occasionally. He had held the posts for two years, and was getting fed up of borrowing books from the school children.

His friend Hermione Granger was also a Hogwarts teacher; her subject was Charms. She held the record for the youngest ever professor at the school – she had begun as soon as she left. Professor Flitwick, the old teacher, had left because he was exasperated at continually being mistaken for a house-elf with a beard. It was Hermione who had persuaded Harry to become a teacher as well as herself. He was glad of it. They'd got rid of nearly all of the old Death Eaters and there was nothing left for Aurors like him to do. He'd started of just teaching Flying, but his godfather Sirius Black, who was the old Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, had suggested he take that job as well, at the start of the present school year, he'd leapt at the chance. Sirius was getting bored of his students asking him what it had been like in Azkaban. Harry was already getting bored of people asking him how he defeated Lord Voldemort. They didn't seem to realise that Harry had just led Voldemort to Dumbledore, who had put him in a box and magicked him off to another galaxy far, far away, which had nothing to do with Star Wars. If Voldemort did get out, and found out how to travel at the speed of light, he wouldn't be back for another fourteen million years, assuming he could find his way, so he wasn't a threat.              

As well as refereeing school Quidditch matches, Harry also presided over some league games. He wasn't on best terms with Ron after he'd let Appleby Arrows beat Chudley Cannons 990-10. He didn't really care – they'd still have lost, even if he'd awarded those twelve penalties he didn't. And their Seeker really shouldn't have caught the Snitch when they were eight hundred and thirty points behind. Harry couldn't remember the Seeker's name, Viktor somebody, he though he'd met him somewhere before.

Ron had tried out for the Cannons, but had been turned down because apparently 'they had a perfectly good Keeper already'. They seemed perfectly oblivious of the fact that they had the highest concede rate of any team in the league. However, he had signed a contract with an American side, Sweetwater All-Stars. He now made five thousand Galleons a week and played for England part-time. Oliver Wood, who was Gryffindor Quidditch captain before Angelina Johnson, Harry, Colin Creevey, and a number of other people, played in one of the other parts and the previous English Keeper, who had a totally un-English name, Koyomoto Akamoto, played the rest. Ron had played in the quarter-finals of last year's World Cup, and done brilliantly, but Wood was rather stupidly knocked out by a Bludger five minutes into the next round so they lost by almost as much as Chudley Cannons.

Halfway between the Ministry of Magic and the Leaky Cauldron, Harry realised he was still wearing his robes. He glanced up at a picture of himself on a wall and compared the robes with his real ones. They were both black, but the actual robes had been made with a closed front, and the 'school uniform' had a load of ridiculous Muggle costume like ties and shirts added. Harry quickened his pace. He didn't want to be arrested by some Muggle Protection freak like Arthur Weasley, but unfortunately he was too late. A wizard who was a lot more conspicuous than himself in green and red Caerphilly Quidditch robes Apparated in front of him. He asked Harry for his name, speaking in a Welsh accent, and when he replied he gaped and said, "Are you really?" He was still gaping, so Harry continued.

Occasionally Muggles asked him if he was Harry Potter, and when they did he said "yes" and walked away quickly, cursing Joanne Rowling. She had come to him in his second year and asked if she could write a book about him, to be published when he left school. He agreed. Then she has asked Professor Dumbledore to perform an immensely complex spell that let her see into his memories. After he left school she did it every year, so she continue writing the series. None of this was mentioned in the books, to make them seem more imaginary. He didn't think he could stand it if all the Muggles thought he really existed.

Harry spotted a copy of Fantastic Beasts in a Muggle bookshop. He looked at it, walked in, and did a double take. A wizard book in a Muggle bookshop? Oh, yes. It was the Comic Relief version. It appeared a lot larger to Harry than it did to other people. Muggles got a smaller, simplified version that didn't give too much away. When a wizard looked at it, it appeared just the same as it would if bought in Flourish and Blotts. Except it had Harry's childhood notes in it. They'd removed most of the CHUDLEY CANNONS graffiti, but not much else. Harry couldn't get hold of a spell to remove the writing from his own book.

Harry was within sight of the Leaky Cauldron. Another Hogwarts teacher was entering – Professor Snape. Severus – as Harry delighted in calling him now they were both teachers – had read all the Harry Potter books and seen all the films. He now hated Harry more than ever. Why did Joanne have to include lines like Harry imagined picking up his cauldron, and sprinting to the front of the class, and bringing it down on Snape's greasy head? Severus didn't like it one bit. He also kept complaining to Harry about how his hair was just too short on the movie, like it was his fault. 

THE HUGELY PREMATURE END

Bad, eh? I obviously didn't read this one through – but, as I hadn't finished, I probably didn't see why I should.